Bound
by centuries of bad blood, England’s two most powerful
families maintain a veneer of civility...until the heir to the staggering
Redmond fortune disappears, reviving rumors of an ancient curse: a Redmond and
an Eversea are destined to fall disastrously in love once per generation.
An enduring legend
Rumor
has it she broke Lyon Redmond’s heart. But while many a man has since wooed the
dazzling Olivia Eversea, none has ever won her—which is why jaws drop when she
suddenly accepts a viscount’s proposal. Now London waits with bated breath for
the wedding of a decade…and wagers on the return of an heir.
An eternal love
It
was instant and irresistible, forbidden...and unforgettable. And Lyon—now a
driven, dangerous, infinitely devastating man—decides it’s time for a
reckoning. As the day of her wedding races toward them, Lyon and Olivia will
decide whether their love is a curse destined to tear their families part...or
the stuff of which legends are made.
Julie Anne Long originally
set out to be a rock star when she grew up, and she has the guitars and the
questionable wardrobe stuffed in the back of her closet t prove it. When
playing to indifferent crowds at midnight in dank clubs lost its, ahem, charm,
she realized she could incorporate all of the best things about being in a
band—namely, drama, passion and men with unruly hair—into novels, while at the
same time indulging her love of history and research. So she made the move from
guitar to keyboard (the computer variety) and embarked on a considerably more
civilized, if not much more peaceful, career as a novelist.
Julie
lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with a fat orange cat. (Little known fact:
they issue you a cat the minute you become a romance novelist.)
The moment orphaned American heiress Titania “Tansy” Danforth arrives on
English shores she cuts a swath through Sussex, enslaving hearts and stealing
beaux. She knows she's destined for a spectacular titled marriage—but the only
man who fascinates her couldn't be more infamous...or less interested.
...but it takes a devil to know one...
A hardened veteran of war, inveterate rogue Ian Eversea keeps women enthralled,
his heart guarded and his options open: why should he succumb to the shackles
of marriage when devastating good looks and Eversea charm make seduction so
easy?
...and Heaven has never been hotter.
When Ian is forced to call her on her game, he never dreams the unmasked
Tansy—vulnerable, brave, achingly sensual—will tempt him beyond endurance. And
fight as he will, this notorious bachelor who stood down enemies on a
battlefield might finally surrender his heart...and be brought to his knees by
love.
~~~~~
Welcome Julie Ann Long...
One of the best parts of writing an ongoing, connected series is that I get to watch (more specifically, I get to make) my characters mature, evolve (more often than not, against their wills, especially the men) and ultimately fall in love. (Falling in love is what usually makes them evolve, of course.)
And nothing is more delicious than taking an unrepentant, set-in-his-ways rogue like Ian Eversea—who readers first met meet in THE PERILS OF PLEASURE as his brother is about to go to the gallows, and then spend a little more quality time with, if you will, in WHAT I DID FOR A DUKE when he's ushered out a window at midnight at gunpoint by the titular duke—and shaking his world hard like a snow globe. Take that, Ian! When everything settles again in Ian's snow glob, his life will never be the same.
When the series begins, we know a few things about Ian. He's passionately loyal to his family: In THE PERILS OF PLEASURE (the first Pennyroyal Green series book), he's been kind enough to frame a broadsheet depicting his brother Colin (who's been sentenced to hang) as a devil, complete with majestic horns. It's their way of staring down doom with courage, insouciance and humor. He'd gladly have gone to the gallows in Colin's stead.
And we already discussed how his midnight foray through the window of the duke's fiancee set in motion the story in WHAT I DID FOR A DUKE. He inadvertently fomented a happy ending for his sister Genevieve and the Duke, but he also rather cemented his reputation as a rake, and earned himself an enemy in the Duke of Falconbridge.
BETWEEN THE DEVIL AND IAN EVERSEA opens, he's still a gorgeous, cheerfully jaded bed-hopper, maintaining his policy of never staying an entire night with a woman, and he still has no intention of getting leg-shackled. He loves his family and cares about the people who have comprised his daily life for decades—people like Ned and Polly Hawthorne of the Pig & Thistle pub, the villagers of Pennyroyal Green. But bed-hopping not enough anymore: he has a plan to dodge his mother's meaningful looks and his brothers' irritating matrimonial bliss by embarking on a bit of world travel, in the hope he can outrun the restlessness that has dogged him since he returned from the war.
He's absolutely certain of what he wants. And it's freedom, movement, and a variety of women.
And that's when I create a little blizzard in his snow globe. And by “blizzard” I mean “Miss Titania Danforth.”
Tansy Danforth at first seems like everything Ian finds dull—too young, too innocent, a blusher, an American. But it takes the element of surprise to capture jaded Ian's attention, and when Tansy creates an uproar by blithely collecting hearts all over Sussex, he begins to suspect she's not what she seems. And when he calls her on her game, to his amazement she calls him on his. Seems it takes a rogue to know one. And the fact that he can recognize her vulnerabilities makes her realize that he has vulnerabilities of his own, stemming from, like hers, losses and upheavals, from things they hide from others but can't hide from each other, since they see life through the same lens.
And suddenly Ian finds a woman who doesn't bore him. A woman he doesn't want to leave. A woman who makes him want to be a different and better man.
He doesn't know it yet, but after I shake his life up, it will be soooo much better, if nothing at all like what he envisioned for himself. (I couldn't bear to torture my characters for VERY long. Just long enough to entertain all of us.)
He may not get what he thinks he wants...but by the end of the story, he'll definitely get what he needs.
The author
of five popular novels from Warner and eight from Avon, Julie Anne Long lives
in California with a fat orange cat (little known fact: they issue you a cat
the moment you become a romance novelist).
